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Jacob's Ladder

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The angels climb Jacob's Ladder on the west front of Bath Abbey.
For other uses, see Jacob's Ladder (disambiguation).

Jacob's Ladder refers to a ladder to heaven described in the Book of Genesis (28:11-19) which the biblical patriarch Jacob envisioned during his flight from his brother Esau:

Jacob left Beersheba, and went toward Haran. He came to the place and stayed there that night, because the sun had set. Taking one of the stones of the place, he put it under his head and lay down in that place to sleep. And he dreamed that there was a ladder set up on the earth, and the top of it reached to heaven; and behold, the angels of God were ascending and descending on it! And behold, the LORD stood above it [or "beside him"] and said, "I am the LORD, the God of Abraham your father and the God of Isaac; the land on which you lie I will give to you and to your descendants; and your descendants shall be like the dust of the earth, and you shall spread abroad to the west and to the east and to the north and to the south; and by you and your descendants shall all the families of the earth bless themselves. Behold, I am with you and will keep you wherever you go, and will bring you back to this land; for I will not leave you until I have done that of which I have spoken to you." Then Jacob awoke from his sleep and said, "Surely the LORD is in this place; and I did not know it." And he was afraid, and said, "This is none other than the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven."

Afterwards, Jacob name the place, "Bethel" (literally, "House of God"). The name "House of God" and the term "gate of heaven" also allude to the Holy Temple which would be built there.

The classic Jewish commentaries offer several interpretations of Jacob's ladder:

  • According to the Midrash, the ladder signified the exiles which the Jewish people would suffer before the coming of the Messiah. First the angel representing the 70-year exile of Babylonia climbed "up" 70 rungs, and then fell "down". Then the angel representing the exile of Persia went up a number of steps, and fell, as did the angel representing the exile of Greece. Only the fourth angel, which represented the final exile of Rome/Edom (whose guardian angel was Esau himself), kept climbing higher and higher into the clouds. Jacob feared that his children would never be free of Esau's domination, but God assured him that at the End of Days, Edom too would come falling down.
  • Another interpretation of the ladder keys into the fact that the angels first "ascended" and then "descended." Since angels originate in Heaven, the text should have described them as descending first. The Midrash explains that Jacob, as a holy man, was always accompanied by angels. When he reached the border of the land of Canaan (the future land of Israel), the angels who were assigned to the Holy Land went back up to Heaven and the angels assigned to other lands came down to meet Jacob. When Jacob returned to Canaan (Genesis 32:2-3), he was greeted by the angels who were assigned to the Holy Land.
  • The place at which Jacob stopped for the night was in reality Mount Moriah, the future home of the Beit HaMikdash (Holy Temple). The ladder therefore signifies the "bridge" between Heaven and earth, as prayers and sacrifices offered in the Holy Temple soldered a connection between God and the Jewish people. Moreover, the ladder alludes to the Giving of the Torah as another connection between Heaven and earth. The Hebrew word for ladder, sulam - סלם - and the name for the mountain on which the Torah was given, Sinai - סיני - have the same gematria (numerical value of the letters).

The Christian interpretation of this passage is based heavily on Jesus's words in Book of John 1:51. In this view, Jesus is seen as being the ladder, bridging the gap between Heaven and Earth, being both the Son of God and the Son of Man, tying into his mediatorial role. Adam Clarke, a Methodist theologian and Bible scholar, elaborates:

"That by the angels of God ascending and descending, is to be understood, that a perpetual intercourse should now be opened between heaven and earth, through the medium of Christ, who was God manifested in the flesh. Our blessed Lord is represented in his mediatorial capacity as the ambassador of God to men; and the angels ascending and descending upon the Son of Man, is a metaphor taken from the custom of despatching couriers or messengers from the prince to his ambassador in a foreign court, and from the ambassador back to the prince."[1]

Reference

  • Scherman, Rabbi Nosson (1993). The Chumash. Brooklyn, NY: Mesorah Publications, Ltd.

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